Tuesday, April 21

Meditation on Peace

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For the past couple months, The Crocker Art Museum has had an exhibition of Buddha. With so much going on, I never took the time to go see the exhibit until the closing ceremony.

There was a ceremony of mantra chanting and silent meditation on peace. Walt and I took the kids to check it out.

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There were some Lamas there (is that right? it sounds funny to say.) that did some chanting in the beginning of the ceremony. It was beautiful.

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The weather was quite warm and there wasn't much shade but the ceremony was suprisingly short. I was prepared for at least 15 minutes of meditation. It was only about 1 minute.

There was a request for more mantra when the ceremony was over. We did it for 5 extra minutes. Josh was a good mantra chanter.

Om Mani Padme Hum

Om Mani Padme Hum

Om Mani Padme Hum

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There were Blessing Cords given out to those who attended. These cords have been blessed by the Dali Lama and are a traditional memento to be worn around the neck or wrist to remind us to carry the ceremony and what it represents with us in our daily lives.

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After the ceremony, we went back inside the museum to check out the Buddhas and permanent collections. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the Buddhas. I think that goes with any temporary exhibition.

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This is my favorite room in the museum. I'm not particularly fond of old oil paintings or portraits but I really love how every inch of the walls are covered in paintings. It's so grand.

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The Lamas followed us home.

Not really.

Notice Carley in the Cinderella dress? She still dresses in princess dresses often.

2 comments:

Shelly Ryan said...

WOW!! Speachless on this one. I love how you get out and do all of these neat things with your family. =)

Diane said...

Awesome! I wish I could have gone with you to experience it also. I guess there was some of that here in Seattle too as Kurt Smith posted about it on his blog. kurtsmithphotography.blogspot.com